Blessings flow from partnership

A new worship and ministry centre at Noosaville in Queensland may be the visible fruit of a 35-year collaboration between the co-located Lutheran church and college there, but their partnership is all about blessing people from both communities.

And, as Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Pastor Mark Hansen says, completing the vision of building a new chapel to share with Good Shepherd Lutheran College began with people too – being thanks to the generosity of two late members from the Sunshine Coast community.

‘We have been very blessed’, Pastor Mark says. ‘We have been able to complete our vision of building a new chapel due to a bequest from Karl and Erna Holtz, and a partnership with the college.

‘The bequest started us on a long journey of exploring our needs, wants and desires, which has also helped us to sharpen our vision of mission and ministry to our community. We wanted the new facilities to help focus us on worship, fellowship, discipleship, outreach and service. Partnering with the college meant we could both benefit from this gift.’

Principal Anthony Dyer, from Good Shepherd Lutheran College, and Pastor Mark led a group of members from the communities to create a Memorandum of Understanding to help them navigate jointly using the facilities.

‘We look forward to seeing what the future holds in how God is going to use these new facilities to help bring our two communities together and further his mission’, Pastor Mark says.

Both the congregation, which was formed in 1985, and the co-located college’s original incarnation as a Lutheran primary school which opened in 1986, were planted out of Cooroy Lutheran Church, approximately 17 kilometres to the west. From 1991 until the new development was opened late last year, Lutherans in Noosa had worshipped in a multi-purpose hall on the church-college campus.

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